Creative women gather to tackle the big issues

By Sarah Thomas

Updated31 May 2016 — 3:11pmfirst published at 12:11pm

How much are you really worth?

This and other tough questions will be tackled in Make Nice, a three-day conference that aims to highlight the unspoken challenges for women working in the creative industries – starting with pricing and pay rates.

Although it may seem commercial suicide to start broadcasting fees among competitors in a freelance-heavy industry, Vivid Ideas curator Jess Scully says open discussion will help to engender a stronger, collaborative network.

"I remember five to 10 years ago, you did have the fear that there was a limited amount of creative work and so people would hold on to it and guard their clients furiously, and I think that's definitely changing," Scully says.

"We do need to have a space to have these sorts of conversations and need to understand that actually there is a huge market for creative work and it's only growing. We just need to figure out how we can work together to expand that market."

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Make Nice is the brainchild of designer and UTS tutor Ngaio Parr and artist and Brisbane Powerhouse curator Alexandra Winters. The pair have invited international speakers, who will be backed by roundtable discussions on topics such as pricing, contracts, client management, workflow and managing staff for an audience of 150 women in the creative industries.

"The main purpose is to create a more supportive network among creative women in Australia and we hope that there will be a trickle-down effect from that, [for] people to be more confident to ask for what they want in their workplaces, for people to able to collaborate with other women, and therefore everyone rising up," Parr says.

Scully describes Make Nice as "a very warm group therapy session". The speakers, who will be present across the three days, are women with a proven record in overcoming some of the hurdles the event aims to put under the spotlight.

LA-based photographer Elizabeth Weinberg is one of the conference's keynote speakers, alongside French designer Leslie David and US set designer Adi Goodrich. Weinberg most recently shot Iggy Pop and Eagles of Death Metal's Josh Homme for The New York Times, and has captured many celebrity faces including Matt Damon, Ruby Rose, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

Weinberg is bringing to Make Nice her experiences of working in a male-dominated profession, the benefits of being in a support network of female photographers in the US and her thoughts on being "discriminated" against while pregnant with her son Oscar, who was born in November 2013.

"In retrospect, I wouldn't have told anyone except close friends that I was pregnant because I found that people didn't want to hire me," says Weinberg. "I did a couple of jobs when I was very pregnant and photography can be a physical job, especially when you're shooting lifestyle advertising and you're on the beach running around, but I really had to prove myself.

"People were basically treating me like I was disabled. I was very shocked by it actually. I had no idea that was what I was in for. Seriously, it was crazy."

Weinberg says she hopes she will inspire those who are trying to make it in the creative fields.

"And maybe bring some ideas about how they can be proactive in their own creative communities," she says. "There's a lot of people looking for like-minded people and it's just a matter of taking the initiative and hosting a get-together every so often that can really help the day-to-day struggles of being a creative freelancer, especially a female one."